Cleopatra continues to fascinate after two millennia. What did she look like, this fabled woman who seduced not only Julius Caesar but also Mark Antony, and bore them both children? Was she beautiful?
Popular imagination and the halcyon silver screen portray Cleopatra as a seductively winsome Egyptian Queen in the style of Luxor or Giza. In today's enlightened and decolonized movies she's depicted like this:
Who knows, maybe Julius Caesar was attracted by her glittery Ukrainian eye makeup, perhaps Mark Antony was captivated by the Nubian side of things. But no, hardly. Cleopatra, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ, "Cleopatra the father-beloved" was Greek, a Macedonian Ptolomy, and she looked like this:
Beautiful? Not conventionally, but she had power, you'll note her diadem. In that vein, she was utterly ruthless and didn't shy scared of having family members assassinated, much less waging war itself.
This went badly for her, Κλεοπάτρα (Glory of the Father) took poison and died on learning of her lover Antony's defeat at Actium. She played for the highest stakes and lost.
Just ask the monkey,
LSP
